Paytm might raise Rs 2,000 crore in next funding, to be valued at $5 billion

One97 Communications, the mobile internet company running the mobile payment and ecommerce platform Paytm, is said to be looking forward to raising fresh funding of about Rs 2,000 crore ($300 million) from Taiwanese semiconductor maker MediaTek, American multinational banking firm Goldman Sachs, Singapore government owned investment company Temasek and other investors.

If everything goes as planned, Paytm would be valued at $5 billion, which is more than double of its present valuation ($2.3 billion) as per last round of capital infusion that took place in June this year.

Also read: War against Cash – Paytm's story so far

The funding round would also be seeing the participation of existing Paytm investors, like Chinese internet giant Alibaba, its payments affiliate Alipay, and venture capital firm SAIF Partners.

"The new round is expected to value the company at close to $5 billion," one of the sources aware of the developments told ET. (S)he added that the money raised would be distributed amongst all of Paytm's businesses, viz. digital payments, online marketplace and the upcoming payments bank.

If the deal takes place, it will be listed as 2016’s biggest round of finance in the country’s broader technology and internet space, leaving behind the $200 million that Snapdeal raised and $150 million that Bigbasket raised.

Also read: 20 Top funded Indian Startups in 2016 so far

The present ownership of One97 includes CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma holding 21.33% stake, SAIF Partners holding 30.81% stake, Alibaba holding 8.53%, and Alipay being the single largest shareholder with a 32.41% holding.

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